So... anytime something like this, the kinect, etc... is about to be rolled out, you can safely assume that big game manufacturers aren't going to screw you over and big games will have support.... 90% of the time:)

Definitely Halo. But it's telling that they only use the generic snow effect.

Why Open Source games? Obviously because they need a dual rendering path for the wide angle immersive projector's viewpoint as well as the high resolution HDTV viewpoint. Good luck getting Bungie to hand over the source code for Halo to work on a research lab project.

Yes they are. And that's a huge problem if you want to look at their source code, as in Microsoft departments tend to be incredibly clannish and intra-competitive. So Microsoft Research has the following choices:

A) Spend weeks or months bickering back and forth with the gaming division for access to the Halo source code, orB) Just grab some open source code and get on with it.

Not Microsoft directly, but probably 343 Studios, which was created to continue the Halo franchise when Bungie moved to other projects.

Not 343 Studios. 343 Industries. Which isn't a separate company owned by Microsoft, but the name of the group managing the Halo franchise. It's a group of Microsoft employees who oversee Halo. Microsoft Studios (formerly Microsoft Game Studios) is the publisher of these games.

343 holds all the rights and "owns" it, and they have all the source code. And given lead times, I'

If I can help it, Microsoft will never be a part of my living room; or any room in my house. And yes, let's not forget how they channel money to companies to destroy FOSS while making it seem like they are not involved. That kind of behavior is unforgivable.

Well, it's probably a good game and I'd be more than chuffed to write even a portion of it myself, but the video makes it feel like the kart is disconnected from the ground.

They should turn of skidmarks if they can't get them to emerge from the tyres for a start.

It's just a bit floaty, isn't it. One of the things about Mario Kart is that the kart feels connected to the ground, like there is some invisible force that is pushing the kart downwards onto it that adds an aspect of realism to an otherwise fantasy

They should turn of skidmarks if they can't get them to emerge from the tyres for a start.

In the 3DS version of Gameloft's Asphalt, the skidmarks visibly hover above ground when 3D is on (and for some reason car shadows aren't even drawn in first person views).
I've always loved the driving games in which if you do donuts in one spot, your oldest skidmarks eventually begin disappearing. I believe Asphalt3D may have this also...

<quote>and for some reason car shadows aren't even drawn in first person views</quote>

In general, games that do explicitly support 3D often do things like disable shadows and other lighting related things. Those lighting effects are acheived through interesting 'tricks' that end up looking wrong in stereoscopic situation. This wouldn't be a problem for real time ray tracing in theory.

Master Chief makes his appearance at 55 seconds into the video. If only for a second. And I'm pretty sure the "immersive" parts of it are just visual effects created for the following clip that carry over.

In their defense, it's really cool and I'm sure it's hard for even the Microsoft Research people to get access to the source code for Xbox games >.

Master Chief makes his appearance at 55 seconds into the video. If only for a second. And I'm pretty sure the "immersive" parts of it are just visual effects created for the following clip that carry over.

In their defense, it's really cool and I'm sure it's hard for even the Microsoft Research people to get access to the source code for Xbox games >.

The ad appears to be showing some sort of rapid scanning and 3d compensation technology that allows for projecting an image onto a set of nonplanar surfaces (Like, say, living-room furniture) in a manner which still appears as a single coherent image when viewed from the player's position. It's a handy tech to have when you have an actual room for living in, rather than a room dedicated for gaming.

The ad appears to be showing some sort of rapid scanning and 3d compensation technology that allows for projecting an image onto a set of nonplanar surfaces (Like, say, living-room furniture) in a manner which still appears as a single coherent image when viewed from the player's position. It's a handy tech to have when you have an actual room for living in, rather than a room dedicated for gaming.

My living room is my gaming room, is my dining room, is my bedroom. And it's a mess. I don't need MS scanning it and then suddenly I get a ton of cleaning ads.

I'd been playing with such an idea for years, but never set it up for lack of games that supported multiple monitors with wildly different and overlapping fields of view. I'm glad to see someone with some clout is finally thinking about it. Of course I think I'll still be buying an Occulus Rift before a projector.

Simple, the pixel density and picture quality from the LCD display will be better than the projector.

If you had a nice projector screen and a projector with a crazy resolution then by all means ditch the LCD display, but it will cost you a good amount and is not really novel.
However this solution can combine a sub $500 projector and sub $500 LCD display and provide a novel new display that increases immersion without compromising the current image quality.

Because if you had an HD projector you probably wouldn't set its FOV to be covering most of your room, you would focus it onto a narrow screen. And if you did set it to a wide angle projection the center of the screen would be very low resolution.

This is a good use of a high pixel density display in the center of your view and a low pixel display for your peripheral view where your eyes aren't very focused anyway.

I use a tool (glIntercept) when debugging my OpenGL products that lets me disconnect the camera and fly around in the scene, on any OGL software, even closed source. It works by pre-transforming the projection matrix, essentially creating an additional modelview matrix...

The XBox 360 inside has the same low level control over the graphics being rendered...

To make nice reflections we use something called an Environment Map, or Cube Map. It's the same sort of tech that Google Street View uses. To make a real time updating reflection where what's reflecting isn't a fixed env map, simply render the scene to a texture from the object's perspective with a 90 degree FOV in each 6 cardinal directions, and use them as the env / cube map for the object.

So, any vantage point can be converted into a full 360 degree render from that camera's position. MS could take advantage of this technology to send the images to each projector automatically, for legacy games, and/or provide an API so that devs can take advantage of the feature directly -- maybe have an equipment loadout on one wall, health display on the right, Radar on the ceiling, etc.

The extra distraction can be really useful, if done right. Imagine seeing a offscreen enemy approaching you from the side or a rushing zerg army from two screens to the north. I just hope this tech becomes an open standard/output method and gets delivered by some other companies and not only be a MS/Sony/Apple/Nintendo monopoly. It's already sucks that MS patented(or at least filled a patent) even though there are plenty of prior art.

Funny how Microsoft finds (1) a need for and (2) the utility of "free as in libre software" and the honest-to-god-truly Open Source Software. Considering they proclaim themselves to me masters of the software production game, you think they could generate a team to code up a useful game to showcase in their prototype like this. Somehow, they couldn't work together with the Halo guys and show Master Chief strutting his stuff?.
This is dripping with irony. However, they must have used an irony-proof filter

There's no irony here. Microsoft Research does all sorts of things with open source software, including giving it away themselves. There is no reason to write completely new games for a one minute demonstration. That is just ridiculous.

Also, Master Chief was in the demo; the original poster (and perhaps you) was just too blinded by seeing something open source on the screen to notice it.

MSR is one of the few branches of Microsoft that doesn't feel like traditional Microsoft. But by all means, continue hatin

re: There's no irony here..
Dude, you need to learn the definitions of two words: "irony" and "hate". That's because your reply to me makes it obvious that you don't know the meaning of either word, flimflammer..
You accuse me of "hating", yet all I did was point out an ironic point of fact. Feel free to research that on your own while you look up the meanings of those two words. I had no hate on my side, tongue, spleen, or little toe.:>p.
As for irony: this meets the definition of irony beautifull

I know these definitions well enough. I contend there is no real irony in the fact that Microsoft Research uses open source software as this is not at all uncommon for them. Microsoft and Microsoft Research might as well be two totally different entities as far as anyone is concerned, because the former and the latter have two totally different demeanors regarding the usage and support of open source. Speaking of demeanor, yours is quite easily where I got the opinion of hate from you. Not from your message

re: Microsoft and Microsoft Research might as well be two totally different entities as far as anyone is concerned, because the former and the latter have two totally different demeanors regarding the usage and support of open source.Yet they are both under the same umbrella. I am sorry that you believe that I am being obnoxious; it's your right to feel that way. I am expressing my opinion, and not in an obnoxious way [in my humble opinion:>) ], and it certainly wasnot meant to be obnoxious. But I

Also, Master Chief was in the demo; the original poster (and perhaps you) was just too blinded by seeing something open source on the screen to notice it.

MSR is one of the few branches of Microsoft that doesn't feel like traditional Microsoft. But by all means, continue hating every little thing that has to do with Microsoft.

Yeah, you're right. I noticed the shard gun after posting. Microsoft research does amazing things, but it's still surprising to see a game named after, and starring, the Linux Mascot on Microsoft's official videos.